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Post by Alight on Oct 25, 2018 10:51:38 GMT
Hi all, I have a question regarding Down Street disused station. Earlier this year I went on a Hidden London tour of the station during which we learnt about how the passageways were subdivided into various offices etc. Check out photographs on this page of Sub Brit to see what I mean. Whilst all the subdivisions are still present along both platforms, on the lower landing/passenger footways all the partition walls are gone, presumably so it can be kept clear for evacuation. Does anyone know when these walls came down? Was it following the King's Cross fire of 1987 or before then?
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Post by commuter on Nov 15, 2018 10:14:15 GMT
Are you talking about the walls on what was originally the "way-out" passageway (I.E. one level up from platform level; where the bottom of the spiral staircase & lifts were?)
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Post by Alight on Dec 1, 2018 1:38:49 GMT
Are you talking about the walls on what was originally the "way-out" passageway (I.E. one level up from platform level; where the bottom of the spiral staircase & lifts were?) Correct!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2018 17:21:14 GMT
The partitions had long gone when I first started leading tours down there in the early 1990s - I was told at that time it had been due to work on the IMR but I could never quite work out why, if that was the case, the platform level partitions hadn't gone as well? Possibly the platform rooms are too 'structural' and being adjacent to the tracks too much hassle to take out. I think the upper rooms had gone by the time the spiral staircase was replaced.
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Post by Alight on Dec 2, 2018 2:41:46 GMT
Thanks Moquette. Was the new spiral staircase installed by the early '90s when you began delivering tours?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2018 19:55:01 GMT
Thanks Moquette. Was the new spiral staircase installed by the early '90s when you began delivering tours? I'm really having to think now, it was a long time ago. I'm minded to think that the original spiral was still in when we did early tours and the replacement was mid-90s?
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Post by Alight on Dec 3, 2018 22:52:13 GMT
It is possible the spiral staircase was replaced later, perhaps at the same time as the fitting of the new lighting system. In this old clip from a tour in 1993 there are no direct shots of the staircase, but it is clear the passageways were lit by incandescent lighting rather than the newer fluorescent bulkheads. So Down Street as an evacuation route must have been modified in stages. Going back to the partition walls, I have just had a look in the book entitled 'London's secret tubes' (Andrew Emerson & Tony Beard). It says the following: "a visit by one of the authors revealed that the offices in the lower subway remained intact in 1986 including the historically most interesting committee room. The whole lot has now been swept away and the subway returned to a long, bare, empty subway." This makes me think the argument for the walls coming down to clear way for an evacuation route is more credible than the argument to make way for the IMR equipment.
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